Brandishing A Club

Lieberman's Radio Ads Press Heavily On Lamont's One-time Membership In An Exclusive Greenwich Country Club. Lamont Calls The Effort `Desperate' And `sad.' Both Candidates Continue To Reach Out To African Americans.

As their bitter primary campaign winds down with an appeal for the black vote, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman is contrasting his civil rights record with Ned Lamont's membership in a Greenwich country club ``not known for its diversity.''

On the last weekend before the Tuesday primary, Lieberman's campaign diverted resources to television and radio ads, including a hard-hitting spot heavily playing on black radio stations, ``Membership.''

The 60-second commercial suggests that Lamont, a wealthy Greenwich cable television entrepreneur, was racially insensitive for his 16-year membership in the Round Hill Country Club.

``It's terribly disappointing,'' Lamont said Saturday, dismissing the ad as the last gasp of a flagging campaign. ``The idea that the senator at the end of an 18-year career would cast charges like that is very sad.''

With Lamont leading by 13 percentage points in a recent Quinnipiac University poll, Lieberman is flooding the airwaves with ads reminding Democrats of his 36-year record in politics and urging them to turn out Tuesday.

One new television commercial ends on almost a plaintive note on behalf of the three-term incumbent and former vice presidential nominee: ``On Aug. 8, let's be there for Joe Lieberman. He's been there for us.''

The Lieberman campaign says it still is mounting one of the largest get-out-the-vote efforts ever seen in Connecticut, but some money has been diverted from ground operations to more radio and television time for new ads.

``Campaigns shift their resources on a daily basis toward the end,'' said Sean Smith. ``That's what we are doing, fighting for every last vote.''

That fight is being waged with two new television commercials, stressing Lieberman's record and his endorsement by Bill Clinton and others; and with two radio spots -- one featuring Clinton and another that returns to Lamont's wealth and a subject previously addressed only in a pamphlet: membership in Round Hill.

``In the 1960s, as a college student, Joe Lieberman fought for equality and marched with our civil rights leaders in the South,'' a narrator says. ``Ned Lamont says he will stand up for all the people of Connecticut, but did you know that for 16 years, Ned belonged to Round Hill, an exclusive country club not known for its diversity?''

The narrator mentions that the Bush family once belonged to Round Hill, then says Lamont's membership is something that the challenger wanted to keep from becoming an issue.

``Ned Lamont only resigned from Round Hill after he decided to run for the Senate because he was afraid it would become a campaign issue. Born into wealth, Ned Lamont is trying to buy a seat in the United States Senate. Membership may have its privileges, but the Senate isn't one of them.''

Round Hill's wealthy membership of 500 families is predominantly white, but the club has non-white members, Lamont said Saturday as he attended a West Indian celebration in Hartford.

``I don't want to say anything more than that because I just think it's a horrible distraction. I think Sen. Lieberman wants to talk about anything except for the real issues in this race. And I can't believe he's got that ad out on radio right now. It's desperate. It's sad.''

But Smith said that the Lieberman campaign has a right to examine Lamont's paltry public record, including his character. With Lamont's elective background limited to local office in Greenwich, the campaign has been dominated by Lieberman's 18-year record in the Senate and his support for the war in Iraq.

Membership in an exclusive club is fair game, he said.

``It is something that we've heard from Democrats all over the state, that they think this is offensive behavior,'' Smith said. ``It also speaks to a calculating politician who only resigns when it becomes convenient for him politically.''

The renewed effort to use Round Hill and Lamont's wealth against him comes on a weekend when both candidates are appealing to black communities for votes.

Lamont campaigned Saturday with two prominent African Americans: actor Danny Glover and U.S. Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., who was in Connecticut for the third consecutive weekend on Lamont's behalf.

Lieberman is scheduled to campaign in black churches in Stamford and Bridgeport today with Eleanor Holmes Norton, a congressional delegate from Washington, D.C., and Newark Mayor Cory Booker.

Last week, Lamont was endorsed by the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton, who both said that Lamont's volunteer teaching in a Bridgeport public high school was more telling than his membership in Round Hill.

Lamont, 52, the great-grandson of J.P. Morgan's banking partner, Thomas Lamont, resigned from Round Hill before his candidacy at the suggestion of his campaign manager, Tom Swan.